Vintage Ad Cunard Cruise Lines 1953

Once upon a time, a  cruise was a world of gaiety, comfort and relaxation such as no other form of travel provided. It was a rarefied world of glamour, hospitality and elegance.

As the headline for this 1953 Cunard Lines boldly proclaims: “Getting there is half the fun.” Tell that to the trapped 4,200 passengers and crew of the ill-fated Carnival Cruise Ship Triumph.

For those passengers on the calamitous cruise ship Triumph, their fairy tale dream vacation turned into a Grimm Brothers nightmare. Instead of overflowing with hospitality, it was overflowing toilets.

Getting There is Half the Fun

But once upon a time a cruse ship truly was a fairy tale, a brilliant holiday in itself to be enjoyed to the utmost and the mid-century ads reflected that:

“You may step a merry mile…or inhale  the clean salt air from the comfort of your deck chair….you may linger over sumptuous meals prepared by internationally trained chefs….you may relax in peace or dance the evening through.”

 “You live awhile in a festive world apart…. A world which, in both senses of the word, transport you. “

Stranded at sea, awash in raw sewage, fighting for dwindling food, a veritable floating Petri dish of disease, the passengers of the stricken Carnival Cruise Ship Triumph would concur,  it indeed was “A once in a lifetime adventure.”

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Morning Lift Off

 Intruding upon on our leisurely Sunday morning breakfast in the winter of 1958, the rude roar of the airplane passing overhead totally obliterated the happy snap, crackle and pop sound effects of my Rice Krispies.

Distracted by the loud disturbance, Mom lost count of how many heaping teaspoons of Tang she had already added to the pitcher of cold water, while Dad took his nose out from the Sports Section long enough to look up  in the direction of the noise.

Stabbing a forkful of burnt salami and runny eggs, Dad wondered what gourmet treat the glamorous Pan Am-coffee-tea-or me- stewardess might be serving her passengers as the jet whisked those lucky travel-now-pay-later tourists  away for their La Dolce Vita Roman Holiday Tours.

Between bites, Dad wondered aloud whether the plane might be one of Pan Am’s new Jet Clippers that was getting so much press lately. Suddenly it seemed, we were catapulted into the jet age, the age of shrinking distances and expanding horizons.

“Imagine,” he mused in wonderment, “only 6 1/2 magic hours to Europe!”

1958 was indeed a year defined by speed and motion. We successfully launched Americas first satellites into outer space, supersonic aircraft were setting world speed records, and now Pan Am Jet clippers with a cruising speed of 600 mph were  criss crossing the ocean.

Before jet planes, transatlantic flights were longer and noisier.
(L)Vintage ad Pan Am 1949 (R) Vintage ad Pan Am 1958 first commercial jet across the Atlantic

New Horizons

Suddenly the whole world was within easy reach.

Jet travel was a new concept of air transportation. Transatlantic air travel in the immediate post-war years was still a novelty, but offered significant advantages over sea travel. A typical trip by sea across the Atlantic took about 5 days while air travel in a turbo prop plane cut that down to less than half a day, with intermediate stops usually in gander Newfoundland and/or Shannon, Ireland.

Now with the Boeing 707, Pan Am ushered in the jet age. It was a magic world of travel. Pan Am’s jet clippers were the first transatlantic jet airliner- they were pure jets, the airline boasted, a major advance over turbo props. It was a world of vibration-free, quiet comfort.

Take Off

Another loud roar was heard this one much closer to home. From the living room we could hear my 6-year-old older brother Andy howling because TV host Chuck McCann’s goofy moon face on “Lets Have Fun” went all fuzzy on our television screen just as he was about to air a Popeye cartoon.

Suddenly  Popeye, Olive Oyl and Wimpy dissolved into  a collection of  wiggles, jiggles and flutters and the mealy-mouthed mumblings of Popeye  was all that could be made out on the TV.“I is disgustipated!”

“Those darn jet planes,” Dad murmured grappling with the TV controls to try to smooth out the flutter on the television reception caused by the airplanes.

No such luck.

Now that we were in the flight path from Idlewild Airport the TV reception on the old Philco would erupt into streaks, flop over’s and a flurry of snow.

Hoping to distract him, Mom poured Andy a cup of the freshly made Tang into his melmac Popeye mug. Between great gulps of the fluorescent orange elixir, my brother and I enthusiastically sang our own version of the Tang commercial:

He’s Popeye the sailor man he’s strong to the finich cause he eats his spinach  but if you want to do what the astronauts do

Join the space gang

 And drink your energy Tang

 Tang is for breakfast, lunch and after school-tang 

 Tang is energy zing like rocket fuel…” causing us to dissolve into gales of laughter.

 Wild Blue Yonder

“Hoo, Ha, those jets are a menace” Mom complained, fixing another cup of instant Nescafe for herself and Dad.

Jets were now constantly screeching over our homes, supermarkets and schools. The wild blue yonder was getting wilder every day as military planes got out of control, collided and exploded on a regular basis.

“Right here in East Meadow no less,” a distraught Mom exclaimed, “ only, three- blocks- god-forbid- from where the Pearlman’s live, an Air Force bomber disintegrated right on the front lawn of a family’s home. Who ever heard of such a thing?”

“Here’s one for you.” Dad read grimly from an article in the Long Island Press “Tragic landing on Highway. Forced into an emergency night landing when his air force C-123 transport ran short of gas over a thickly settled LI suburb, the pilot set down on a highway. The plane plunged through an overpass, smashed 3 cars, and came to a rest after killing…..”

Mom cut him off quickly. “The “kinder” have big ears,” she said nodding in my direction. Sitting at the kitchen table drinking my cup of milk, I sipped in thoughtful silence. As Dad read the story, I gulped it down.

It was both frightening and riveting.

Globetrotting

 With the faulty Philco on the fritz, the prospect of my brother missing his Sunday morning  shows loomed large. Mom wisely anticipated the possibility of our own localized, 38 pound explosion, and quickly handed Andy a favorite book to distract him from the fact he would be missing Sonny Fox on Wonderama.

Captivated, Andy opened the large book on the floor and was going over the pages very carefully.

It was a World Atlas with colored maps and pictures of the strange things to be found in foreign countries. In one page was a picture of the earth, a round ball and a paragraph that said if one were to travel always in a straight line in one direction he would go clear around the world and come back to his starting point.

“Do you know, said Dad buttering his toast, “you could learn a great deal more about geography if you were really in those countries instead of just reading about them.”

“Yeah, Andy answered skeptically, “but how would we get to those places”.

“You could fly for one,” returned Mom, pouring each of us a cup of freshly made Tang. “You could even fly to Paris right now if you wanted to.”

Since October, it was a much smaller world especially with the new commercial jets that could fly you from NY to Europe in a magical 6 ½ hours.

“Forget about the same old places …same old faces…same old things,” the commercial for Pan Am crowed. “This year why not give the globe a spin and pick out the places you’d really like to go.”

“Yes now’s the time to listen to your heart and let yourself go! “

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Jet Age Hits the Suburbs Pt II

Starting in the fall of 1958 the roar of jets could be heard streaking through the blue skies of my Long Island suburban neighborhood, screeching over split levels, supermarkets and elementary schools on a daily basis.

In a flash,  it seemed we were catapulted into the jet age.

Interrupting our once leisurely Sunday breakfast one December morning, the rude roar of a plane passing overhead totally obliterated the happy snap, crackle, pop, sound effects of my Rice Krispies.

Staring up in the direction of the noise, Dad wondered aloud whether the plane might be one of Pan Am’s new Jet Clippers that were getting so much press lately.

Proudly, Pan Am had taken America’s airlines into the jet age. Since October, it was a much smaller world especially with the new commercial jets that could fly you from NY to Europe in a magical 6 ½ hours.

Stabbing a forkful of burnt salami and runny eggs, Dad wondered what gourmet treat the glamorous Pan Am-coffee-tea-or me- stewardess might be serving her passengers as the jet whisked those lucky travel-now-pay-later tourists  away for their La Dolce Vita Roman Holiday Tours.

New Horizons

Post-war prop planes were both noisier and slower than jet planes

The prospect of transatlantic jet service was the talk of the town. Suddenly the whole world was within easy reach, the future of air travel had arrived.

Jet travel was a new concept of air transportation. A major advance over turbo props, it was a world of vibration-free, quiet comfort.

Transatlantic air travel in the immediate post war years was still a novelty. At a time when a typical trip by sea across the Atlantic took about 5 days, air travel in a turbo prop plane offered the advantage of cutting that down to less than half a day, with stops usually in Gander Newfoundland and/or Shannon, Ireland.

Vintage Ad 1957 for Boeing 707 featuring a prototype

Dad explained that now with the new Boeing 707, Pan American had ushered in the jet age.

Although Pan American boasted that their jet clippers were the first transatlantic jet airliner, the U.S. was not the first nation to enter the jet age in commercial aviation. In the early 1950’s while Americans were busy building hot jets for the Air Force, the British already had them in commercial operation with its De Havilland Comet. In May of 1952 Britain’s Comet entered service and astonished the world.

Boeing 707

But when American airlines did convert to turbojet-powered aircraft in 1958 they did so with the most successful jetliner yet constructed- the Boeing 707.

Boeing teased the public a full year ahead of actual availability, boasting of its great feat in an advertisement that ran in 1957 :

“The worlds most experienced builder of long-range jet aircraft brings you the jet airliner of tomorrow-Boeing 707” And they boasted “Boeing was the only American jetliner flying today!”

“In this superb ship you will cruise indigo blue skies 6 miles above the earth-with such serene smoothness you’ll seem poised motionless in space. Yet be traveling an incredible 600 miles an hour. “

“Already 11 famous airlines have ordered 707 jet transports. They chose Boeing jets for many reasons including this: when delivery begins in less than 2 years the 707 will be the most tested airliner ever to take to the skies”

Leaving on a Jet Plane?

 His curiosity peaked, my brother Andy wanted to know if our parents had ever flown in a jet. Mom explained that the very first time she had ever flown on a plane was when she and Dad had gone to Cuba on their Honeymoon, but that it had been a regular airplane which was both slower and noisier than a jet.

“First time nothing!” Dad boomed. “You were a seasoned pro by the time we went to Cuba.”

“What about all those flights you took at the 1939 Worlds Fair?” Dad joked.

Mom threw her head back and laughed.

She scooted off to her bedroom and started rummaging through one of her many junk drawers. Among the many marbles, old skate keys, mints, receipts, matchbooks, and other assorted flotsam and jetsam she found what she was hunting for.

She came back proudly displaying a shiny button that said “I Have Seen the Future” on it. Gently pinning the blue and white button on my coveralls, I clapped my hands and smiled in delight.

New York Worlds Fair 1939

Excitedly, Mom told us that she had saved this button since she was a little girl. It was from an exhibit at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, which, she explained, was like a huge amusement Park, but for adults too.

At the General Motors Pavilion, which was the most popular exhibit of the Fair, there was something called the Futurama ride that took you on an imaginary flight across America from coast to coast.

“Remember, in 1939 very few people had every flown in an airplane,” Mom began, “so it was quite exciting.”

“You really felt somehow like you were flying,” Mom recalled.” I don’t know how they did it, but you had the sensation of flying over a huge detailed diorama of life in the distant future of 1960; like you were catching a glimpse of the world of the future from the window of an airplane.”

That sounded like the best part -it was supposed to be a look into a glittering future that was going to be so wonderful, so full of promise

“Your future, she said smiling, softly kissing my head, “the future I would dream about for you.”

All Eyes to the Future

 “It was a 15 minute ride, and you sat partially enclosed in a high-backed blue velour seat. A narrator spoke to you saying ‘A new world, a greater world a better world, come travel into the future!…The America of 1960!’

“You really got goose bumps. It seemed, at the time, like so far off into the future,” she said wistfully.

So we see things to come, the narrator spoke optimistically. A new world with a future –that is where we are going to spend the rest of our lives.

“And now, can you believe it,” Mom continued, “that’s only two years from now- Andy you’ll be a big boy of eight and Sally you’ll be five years old and just starting kindergarten.”.

My eyes lit up at the idea of the future. All Eyes to the Future!

Flights of Fancy

“Boy, what I remember most, were those god awful lines,” Dad said transported back to 1939.

“That swooping, simulated airplane ride was really all the talk of the fair, so sometimes you had to wait on line for as much as four  hours. But once you got there, you forgot all about the wait- you were swept along, together with 600 other visitors, on a fifteen minute ride and the narrator, a man with a really d-e-e-p  v-o-i-c-e, spoke about New Horizons and Highways.”

“What was amazing,” Dad tried to explain, as he cut into a piece of cinnamony coffee cake, “was that they synchronized the narrator’s voice with the movement of the seats, so you felt  like he was speaking just to you, at just the right spot in the journey.”

“It was”, lowering his voice to sound like the recorded narrator, ‘a magic Aladdin like flight through time and space. Old Horizons’, Dad continued speaking even deeper and slower ‘op- e-n- in-g  to  n- e- w- Ho-ri-z-ons’.

“You looked down below at teeny tiny models of hundreds of thousands of buildings, and thousands of little teardrop shaped cars and a million trees and you know, you really had the sensation of swooping down getting closer.”

“As you crossed America,” he explained in obvious delight, “the dusk of the diorama turned into night and then the plane moved across the country and the sun rose again.”

My parent’s enthusiasm for the future was infectious-the images gripped me and I took it all in.

All Eyes to the Future.

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Freedomland Fun Foiled

From Coney Island to Six Flags, amusement parks have long been part of the Great American Summer. And none was more American than Freedomland.

Besides my many visits to El Patio, my grandmothers suburban beach club, my summer staycation in 1960 was to include a visit to the newly opened Freedomland.

Although Disneyland in California remained the holy grail of Amusement parks, for an East coast kid Freedomland seemed a close second.

But because the first week in August 1960 had been an unusually rainy one, our much-anticipated family outing to the amusement park with that improbable name of Freedomland USA, had been postponed a week.

The newly built park, an American history themed extravaganza “where the story of America comes to life” was not only bigger than Disneyland but a whole lot closer- Freedomland was located in the Bronx –“only one half hour by subway from Times Square the heart of NYC”

Even Ed Sullivan himself presented a promotional tour of the park on his Sunday night TV Show , referring to the park as Disneyland’s equal on the East coast.

The parks concept was history based and the layout was cleverly arranged in the shape of a large map of the United states, divided into different themed areas based on the history of the US.

Freedomland in TV Land

The disappointment my older brother and I felt was palpable.

For an impatient nine-year old and a fidgety six-year-old with little sense of time, having to wait a whole week for the chance to visit the park lauded as the most exciting new thing in the world of entertainment,  was unbearable.

Disconsolate and prickly as the oppressive heat, the usually soothing balm that TV offered me, proved useless.

Even the novelty of our new Admiral 19  inch portable TV, allowing us the unrestricted freedom to watch  wobble and flutter-free television anywhere in the entire  house simply by  rolling this fashion slim TV atop  its own cart, lost its luster.

Escaping into the cartoon capers of Casper the Friendly Ghost or Quick Draw McGraw proved futile as there was no escaping those pulse quickening commercials extolling the lure of Freedomland.

Interspersed between the ubiquitous summertime commercials for the pause that refreshes and Palisades- ride the coaster /get cool in the waves of the pool-Amusement Park, were the enthusiastic commercials for  Freedomland that played endlessly on both radio and television, merely exasperating the situation.

 Sure you could swing all day and after dark at Palisades Amusement park, but Jersey kids could keep their old park with the world’s largest salt water pool.

Even if  none other than that defender of truth justice and the American way, Superman, gave his ringing endorsement to the New Jersey park,  his steely visage appearing on billboards, and sides of buses everywhere promising you’ll  have fun, so come on over, it was Freedomland for me.

 “…Mommy and Daddy take my hand Take me out to Freedomland …”

Children having the time of their life, gape with horror in Freedomland ride, Photo Life magazine 8/1/60

A shiver of excitement surged through me watching the rip roarin’ fun that a couple of bucks would buy. “$2.95 is all you pay\For Freedomland all day”

Where else could a kid swaddled in the suburban safety of mid-century America actually witness and experience  firsthand the terrifying devastation of major American cities?

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

For some folks twisting the night away might have been plenty of fun, but who wouldn’t want to experience the tingling shake, rattle and roll of a real tornado twister or the sheer rippling exhilaration of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in a rollicking fun-filled ride?

Imagine the thrill as you were magically transported in a charming antique car through a re-creation of the ruination of the city by the Bay.

The twisted wreckage would appear before your very eyes, as walls and  buildings around you would tremble and crack and tumble-down, surrounded by great heaps of smoking brick, tangled wires and  warped metal girders.

Heightening the thrills,  asphalt streets buckled and melted around you  causing  your car to rock back and forth like a bucking bronco while the trembling earth spasms and convulses opening  up beneath you

Chicago Fire of 1871

If that wasn’t spine tingling entertaining enough you could bask in the warm glow of the great Chicago Fire of 1871.

The calamity of that out of control inferno caused by Mrs O Leary’s cow was cheerfully recreated every half hour as you witnessed  genuine flames  shooting out of burning buildings , the fatal fire roaring down the streets in old-time tinderbox Chicago .

Talk about a hot time summer in the city!

It was one apocalyptic catastrophe after another-all part of the thrill that was as big as America itself.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Stay Tuned for PtII Freedomland

As millions crowd our airports for the traditional Thanksgiving trek home over the river and through the woods, the tension mounts at the thought of  long lines, insufferable crowds, and the dreaded delays that inevitably await the weary and wary traveler.

Gloom is cast before the holiday even begins.

But for the Post-War population, the new air travel was a breeze.

For the modern mid-century family, the notion of flying home for the holidays was a novelty and a grand experience at that.

They could ditch their De Soto which was now as dated and old-fashioned as traveling by sleigh.

Fun is Never Out of Season …All year round, travel is better by air
American Airlines advertisement 1949

Flying High with TWA

“Over the River and Over the woods. To grandmothers house we go,” this 1951 TWA ad announces gaily.

The gleeful modern family fairly bursting with pep and anticipation couldn’t wait to board their flight to visit Grandma. Why let old-fashioned distance keep a family apart?

“There’s a new road now to an old tradition. It’s the TWA high way home for Thanksgiving. And what a blessing it is to families separated by too many rivers and too many woods….and so many years!”

“If you’ve let distance and lack of time keep you away too long, try traveling this high way. Find out how TWA can make it very near to someone dear- for even an ocean apart is only hours apart…by skyliner!”

TWA went out of their way to make flying a family affair!  Flying was no longer just for Dad and his business trips. Once the airline, started their Family Budget Plan, “…parents have had cause to cheer'” boasts TWA in this 1949 ad. “for now they can take the whole family by air at down to earth prices.”

By traveling on a Monday Tuesday or Wednesday, they could save substantially. “As head of the family,” they explain “Dad pays full fare. Mother and the children under 22 go for only half fare each”…and  best of all crying infants and toddlers under 2 could fly free of charge!

Tempting you further, TWA promises, “The flight is a delight, the service supreme, with delicious hot meals served free. Best of all…and oh how mother loves this!…you’re there long before the kids start to fuss or fidget!”

Snowbound for the Holidays

“Snowtime’s no time to give up flying!”
Vintage American Airlines Ad 1950

Compare the cheery disposition of Mr. and Mrs. Modern who have chosen the up -to-date way to travel to visit Grandmother with their neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Outdated who chose the more antiquated mode of travel- their automobile.

Hampered by a snow storm they are unable to dig out in time for the turkey. Mrs. Outdated, with visions of stuffing and cranberries dancing in her head,  looks longingly at the speeding plane in the sky, carrying the wise Moderns to the destination.

Modern Means of Transportation

Vintage ad American Airlines 1949

“Don’t Give Up- Go Up,” declared American Airlines in this 1949 advertisement , touting the benefits and wonders of the new air travel that most post-war families had yet to experience.

“Air Travel- and only air travel can often make the difference between the accessible and the impossible. This is especially true during the holidays when the earthbound are frequently snowbound. Hence, wise travelers plan to go by air.”

“Also, air travel is little affected by the challenge of distance and time. The miles on the map lose their menace- the hands of the clock become friend instead of foe when you use this modern means of transportation.”

“So when holiday travel plans seem likely to get ‘bogged down’ don’t give up- go up.”

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WWII Vintage Illustration 1945 Pruett Carter Illustrator

The winter of 1944 was a blustery one. ..but it would soon turn torrid.

Christmas break, my 18-year-old college freshman mother Betty hopped on a Pullman, joining her family for a well needed vacation in balmy Miami Beach. The glow of health that would come with a trip to sunny Florida would work wonders for chilly, war-weary souls, restoring pep and vitality.

On top of which, to my coed mother’s delight, Miami was swarming with soldiers. Betty would be stationed in seventh heaven..

Miami had become a mecca for the military. Because of the good weather, the Army and Navy had located bases, training schools, and rehab centers there, and the Army still operated most of Miami’s snazziest hotels.

When she met Stanley, a marine who it just so happened was stationed at the hotel next to hers, she knew this was it!  He was a khaki Casanova who swept her off her feet; the dream guy she was always talking about had really come to life.

He just popped up suddenly out of thin air…in of all places… on a Pullman!

Train Travel

Train traveling had changed during WWII. Wisely, her family had purchased train tickets far in advance.  Due to the war, trains were at a premium, with priorities going to the armed forces. Besides troop movement, there were those who had to travel on essential war business. There were service men on furlough; there was the shortage of tires and the rationing of gas- all added to the demand for space on the train.

All Aboard

Vintage Ad Pullman Standard Railroad 1940s

Once on board, Betty chose to relax in the trains observation car. With its glass enclosed loggia, solarium sized windows, radio, soft lighting, it was the perfect place to settle in with a stack of current periodicals that they provided.

Romance

(L) Vintage Illustration Alex Ross (R) Vintage Camay Soap Ad 1940s

All the women’s magazines seemed to be loaded with stories of  war-time romance, setting  her pulse racing. But due to the shortage of available men on the home front, she often wondered whether they weren’t rationing love too. Now with the prospect of all those soldiers milling about Miami, she had her heart set on landing a marine.

After all Valentines day was just around the corner!

It wasn’t very difficult to find out what appealed to a man and how to snare one. All she had to do was thumb through the plethora of  articles and advertisements in her favorite magazines, each  dangling the key to finding romance, often with little difference between the two.

They all had one thing in common. They convinced their female readers that they were waiting for something, always in a state of readiness, of expectancy, of waiting for their real lives to begin.

Betty soaked them up like a sponge

“Sometimes one little improvement in personality, looks or grooming can alter a girl’s entire life…and make it a thing of joy and beauty,” Betty read with keen interest.

(L) Vintage Illustration Pruett Carter (R) Vintage Listerine Ad 1943

Take the story of  Mary for example.

“Mary was a successful career girl…attractive and well dressed. But somehow she simply didn’t click with men. More than all else she wanted marriage. But here she was without a single prospect.

Then quite by chance she overheard a conversation that revealed the truth about her. She lost no time in doing something about it!

Today her good-looking husband thinks ashes ‘the sweetest girl in the world…and she is …now! Don’t take a chance with bad breath. Don’t offend needlessly. Use Listerine ” .

Another ad caught her eye:

Vintage Ad Mumm Deodorant 1944

“Thousands of popular girls prefer Mum.

Mum takes half a minute more or that heavy date may be a dud. That’s the smart girl !

Wouldn’t he be disillusioned hero if you let underarm odor spoil your evening- and shatter his dreams of dainty you. And you might never know w hat happened.

Now you’re at the end of a perfect date and the beginning of a beautiful romance! Keep those stars in your eyes, young lady, they’re very becoming and so is your flower fresh charm”

Soap Operas

Betty knew that if a girl isn’t dainty no other charm counts and there were no shortage of soap ads to drive home that point,

When it came to romance Woodbury Soap offered it in spades

“TNT For Two- one part boy, one part girl-one flash of beauty to light the fuse.

“One blinding moment and your heart rockets skyward. One swift embrace and you know you’ve found love. In his eyes you can see you are strictly from heaven. The night reels, as he whispers “It’s a date…forever!” forever you’ll watch over your loveliness with Woodbury.”

Moonlight Becomes You

“The breathless night. The moon burning on its billion watt radiance. Multiplying mystery, quickening the pulse. Stirring up a suddenly sweet tumult. Heady stuff this.”

“To look into his eyes and know that you were never lovelier. To hear him say the words that match the music in your heart, The guardian of your beauty…a Woodbury facial cocktail clears your complexion for the moonglow look of romance.”

Sparks on the Train

Absorbed in her magazines, she suddenly glanced up.

There he was – 2 chairs away- the most bee-u-ti-ful, deep bronzed male a gal ever yenned for…looking right into her eyes with a sort of I-haven’t-eaten-in-three-days- look. “He’s the dream guy all right,” she confided in her sister …. “with spangles!”

They moseyed into the bar lounge with its luxurious lounges and comfortable chairs the very symbol of the sophistication, taste and fun of railroad travel. Betty couldn’t remember very much what they talked about …except when he asked her to go dancing the very evening they arrived in Miami.

She was right on schedule for her trip to romance.

“Fate,” she thought, “you’ve got a finger in this…and who am I to fight you!”

Miami

Vintage ad Pullman Standard Train 1940s

Arriving in Miami, she lolled around with the other brown backs alongside the pool at the swank Roney Plaza Hotel, recently returned back from the army. Totally redecorated, the Hotel  had the nerve to charge -gasp- $35 a day for a room!

Relaxing by the pool, guests could get a quick “parboil” under its spreading “sun-tan-tree.” Clever tin foil leaves reflected the sun and sped up tanning. Wise gals knew that when m’ lady’s skin is softy and fresh, romance was at your beck and call;  believe it young lady, nothing caught a mans eye like a good coat of tan.

“Be the thrill in his furlough,” Betty hummed to herself as she dozed  off under the blazing sun.

‘So long pale face”, she mused, dreaming of the big evening, “time for a healthy burn. “

Copyright (©) 2014 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

Stay Tuned for Part II A Winter Time Romance

(R) Vintage travel poster tours in Soviet Union Crimea

A Soviet Spring Vacation

Sadly spring break in Siberia is now off-limits to Senator John McCain and other US Representatives thanks to Vladimir Putin’s retaliatory sanctions.

Oh, for the good old days of the Soviet Union when American capitalists were once welcomed with open arms.

Vintage Travel Poster Soviet Union 1930s Intourist

It’s hard to imagine but back in 1930’s, the USSR was a destination vacation

Tourism to Soviet in the interwar years is usually thought of as a smattering of intellectuals, and fellow travelers. But it wasn’t just the idealist leftists who wanted to take a vacation in the USSR.

It was red-blooded American businessmen.

Before the cold war froze out tourism, Soviet Russia actively wooed American tourists.

Picturing the Soviet Dream Vacation

The Soviets tapped into travel dreams of Americans and the flow of American tourists to the Soviet Union in the 1930s helped turn tourism into a mass market industry. (R) Vintage Travel Poster Intourist for Soviet Union Tours 1930s (L) Vintage ad vacation in Chevrolet 1930s

To help sell the Soviet Union as a travel destination to Americans during the interwar years, Joseph Stalin created Intourist in 1929 as the official state travel agency of Soviet Union. Not only was it a full service travel agency offering tours, it peddled an idealized vision of the Soviet State to foreigners.

Through a barrage of advertisements, posters and brochures, the USSR was sold as a utopian state, a country of the future “a Land of Color and Progress.”

Intourist ads enticed tourists painting a picture of a land in transition. ‘See the immense activity, new building, social work of the worlds most discussed country and at reduced rates.”

This was “a country of the future, consisting of millions of peoples from various backgrounds working together to build a future brighter than the backwards past.”

What could be more appealing to red white and blue Americans.

Capitalist Comrades

March 1932 cover Fortune magazine The ” Great Soviet Experiment” even rated a cover story, painted by Diego Rivera. The accompanying article fairly rhapsodized on the marvels of Soviet system.

What better place to raise the profile of the USSR than in the pages of that most Capitalist of magazines Fortune. At a hefty 10 dollars yearly subscription ( nearly a hundred dollars today), this magazine was not geared to your average “fellow traveler.”

It may seem incongruous to find an ad for the Soviet Union in the glossy pages of Henry Luce’s homage to American business. But nestled between ads for luxury cars, boats and brokerage houses, Intourist placed advertisements in nearly every issue of the mammoth monthly magazine.

This ad appeared in Fortune April 1932,

,

“Visit the new and the old in highly individual cities of Soviet Russia where gigantic new planning is altering social forms and yet preserving the notable art treasures of older times,” entices the copy in this ad from April 1932.

” Leningrad with its palaces and “Hermitage art gallery…Moscow with its famous Kremlin and intense activity…Rostov with its enormous collective farming and communal life with theaters clubs and sports fields…Kiev with its byzantine art and Ukrainian music and theater.”

“Intourist provides everything hotels meals all transportation Soviet visa and an English-speaking guide. The price of $192 is for second class 2 together $240 for one alone. Greatly reduced fares for 3 or 4 together.”

New Horizons

(R) Vintage travel poster to Soviet Union from Intourist 1939

The seductive copy from an Intourist brochure from 1939 beckons:

“Today you need no magic carpet, no store of riches to travel. If you but choose your journey carefully thoughtfully, new horizons open up before you…And where are horizons wider and more promising than in the Soviet Union? Here in a land of vastness and infinite variety, is the fulfillment of your brightest travel dreams.”

Travel dreams would open up other horizons as well.

Fellow Travelers

Besides the art treasures and diverse beauty of the Soviet Union, some red-blooded American were also interested in lining their pockets.

Though diplomatic relations between the 2 nations would not be established before 1933 when FDR chose to formally recognize Stalin’s Communist government (ending almost 16 years of American non-recognition of the Soviet Union), American business were already busy tapping into this large market.

Red Light Green Light

The US had refused to recognize the government in Moscow after the Bolsheviks took control in 1917.
Despite the Red Scare here at home throughout  the 1920s, Washington gradually lifted overseas trade and investment opportunities for American business in Russia.

Soviet Russia soon became a major America market.

By 1930 American exports to Russia exceeded in value those of every other country and naturally Americana business relied on this export market. Not surprisingly most experts agree that this commercial and economic relationship strongly influenced formal recognition.

We may have been scared of Red but we loved green.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Cold War Defrosted Pt II

Russia the Hungry bear

Pack up and Go!

Summer road trips have long been an American staple.

Joining the millions of other mid-century family’s, my own suburban family took to the road in search of summertime family fun.

Want to beat the heat…it was easy to cool off by car. Roll down the windows and take the swelter out of summer!

Summer Vacation

Vintage Texaco Ad 1958

Loading the family in our Plymouth Savoy – the car the ads boasted with plenty of knee flexing, arm stretching, hat wearing, roominess- we hit the open highways. Unencumbered by pesky seat-belts we were open to whatever adventure came our way.

Gliding in to the backseat carefully, the back of my thighs would always stick rudely to the hot plastic seat causing me to wonder why my mother ordered the darn protective seat cover in the first place. Begrudgingly though, I had to admit the patterned plastic with gold fleur-de-lis design added an extra sparkle to the car upholstery.

Get Behind the Wheel and Go

We had barely pulled out of the driveway when like clockwork my chain-smoking mother had already given the cigarette lighter a good workout and my brother had already begun complaining.

Despite my brothers protestations, the car radio was always pre set to my parents station WNEW. Although he would have much preferred twisting the ride away with Chubby Checkers, it would more likely be the dulcet sounds of Sinatra, Perry Como and Dinah Shore that would be the summer soundtrack of our travels.

With all the windows rolled down to help with the oppressive heat,  Sinatra’s voice- much to my brothers delight- drifted out the open windows along with Mom’s cigarette smoke-much to my own relief – which would mercifully blow out the window too.

Hit the Road Jack

Fortified by a wax paper bag full of Fritos and a thermos full of Hi C, ( one to stave off hunger on this journey the other to stave off scurvy if the trip took too long) I was game to travel cross-country though more often than not we were headed upstate to the Catskills.

Free Maps for Happy Motoring

Sprawled out on the roomy seat in front of Andy were New York State road maps courtesy of Esso, Texaco and Sinclair gas. My brother was fascinated by maps and lucky for him every gas station had spinning racks of free maps for motorists convenience.

Vintage License plates 1956

While he kept busy plotting the coordinates of our route, I diligently counted the out-of-state license plates on the cars we passed.

Whether cruising on the ribbons of velvet smoothness that were the modern asphalt parkway or the concrete sureness of the new interstate highways, inevitably the time would come when nature called.

It was time for a rest stop.

Vintage Texaco Ad 1958

Like the true explorers everyone kept their eyes peeled for a Texaco Station.

Flying A’s and Gulf Stations were passed over, Sinclair and Esso snubbed; it was not until someone spotted the familiar building with the sparkling white porcelain panels, its famous green and white restroom sign out front that we could stop for relief.

While the service man with the toothy smile and tough oil lined hands cleaned our windshield checked the oil, water and tire pressure, Mom and I headed to the rest room.

White Glove Clean

Vintage Texaco Ad 1954

Mom was always emphatic we stop at Texaco.

She knew that the green and white registered restroom sign out front meant this was the best place to stop, a guarantee of a clean rest room.

After one too many regrettable rest room experiences, the site of a Texaco Station had long been a reliable refuge for weary travelers including my mother.

For over 30 years Texaco rest rooms passed the test.

Not just clean, white glove clean!

Every registered rest room was backed by a Texaco dealers signed pledge, and only Texaco had the famous White Patrol inspection cars to keep this pledge of cleanliness.

Yes, Mom could depend on a place that was always nice and neat and clean. She could count on that as could all of Americas happy motoring families.

The Rest is History

Vintage Texaco Ad 1941

While happy motoring may have given way to road rage and the friendly service man’s smile replaced by a scowling clerk hiding inside a bullet proof glass booth the need to make roadside rest stops hasn’t changed.

But rest rooms were not always available. Gasoline stations used to be just a place where you stopped for gasoline.

By the 1920’s and 30’s summer touring became a popular pastime and Americans took to the roads in growing numbers .

Touring the growing highways of the nation offered adventure readily accessible by the turn of a key and a whirl of the engine.

See The USA in Your Chevrolet

Vintage Ad Chevrolet 1937 “Vacation Days are Happier in a Chevrolet! And think how comfortably you’ll travel…how thrilling each mile will be…how little the trip will cost…in this smarter, safer smoother-rising car! Vacation days are happier because its free-handed with thrills but a miser with its owners money.”

Americans were encouraged to hit the road  and “see  America first!”

“Vacation Days are happier days  when you go in a Chevrolet,” we learn in this 1939 ad. “Think how many places you can go…how many sights you can see…how many things you can do- if you take your vacation this summer in a Chevrolet!”

A Powder Room on Every Road

As  people began spending a lot of time in their cars the oil companies took notice.

By the 1930s as drivers began to realize there was very little difference among the gasoline sold by each national brand and as service became a more important component of the oil company’s business, stations started to attract the tourist motorists by adding amenities such as clean well-appointed rest rooms and drinking fountains.

Texaco 1939 advertisement

“You’re lucky, Betty” says a primping Mother to her daughter in this 1939 Texaco ad touting their spotless rest rooms.  “I remember when it was hard to find clean attractive rest rooms like this.”

“Now we just look for the green and white Registered Rest Room signs at Texaco Dealers along the road. Then we can always be sure.”

“They are backed by our signed pledges,” Texaco assures us “…and by our famous fleet of White Patrol inspection cars on the road in all 48 states.
Texaco White Patrol inspection cars guard Registered Rest Room, and many inspectors now have first aid training and carry first aid equipment.”

Brand recognition became important and stations became nationally standardized, efficient and up to date looking, even hiring well-known industrial designers like Norman Bel Geddes and Walter Dorwin Teague to build appeal into the stations.

For Little Travelers on Big Trips

Vintage Ad Texaco 1940

“Clean across the country little travelers on big trips get so restless, tired, and dusty. It’s such a comfort when children are along to pause and refresh at a Texaco Registered Rest Room,” the copy reads in this Texaco ad appealing to traveling families in 1940

“Refresh yourself too, at clean spic n span Registered Rest rooms wherever you drive. You find them in all 48 states … completely equipped with running water, soap, towels, mirror for your convenience.”

Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval

Vintage Shell advertisement 1939

Of course other stations spruced up too.

While Texaco had their registered rest rooms and white inspection patrol cars, Shell boasted of their “White Cross of Cleanliness,” thanks to a ringing endorsement by Good Housekeeping Magazine.

In the late 1930’s Good Housekeeping Magazine ran an article pointing out how important the conditions of station rest rooms was to public health. The article listed 15 definite standards applying to equipment and cleanliness.

Shell was given permission to put the name of Good Housekeeping Magazine with the “White Cross of Cleanliness” on every Shell station where the rest rooms were  “as well equipped and well-kept as Good Housekeeping specified in the article.”

“Look for the “White Cross of Cleanliness”- you’ll find it at stations and in the rest rooms themselves,” explained the copy in this 1939 ad for Shell.” You’ll also find toilet facilities that are complete and clean-home clean.”

Open All Night

Vintage Texaco Ad 1941

As the growing highway system encouraged longer car trips, traveling could go way into the wee hours of the night. Driving across the country on the Lincoln Highway could be a lonely venture.

By 1940 Texaco took notice promising Americans they would find a welcoming smile and clean rest rooms at Texaco all night long.

Vintage ad Texaco 1940

“All over America during the summer touring season you’ll find this swift efficient All Night Service waiting for you at convenient points along every national highway.”

Just For Summer Touring Season

All Night Long…You’re Welcome! Vintage Texaco Ad 1941

“Remember that late drive home in a blinding rain with the gas gauge creeping toward empty? the reader is asked in this 1941 ad ” Remember how one service station after another was blacked out, closed? Remember worrying about the long wet walk home?”

“But that needn’t happen to you this summer.”

“Once more Texaco Dealers have pioneered! They now offer you all night service on every main highway in America throughout the summer touring season. No matter how late an hour or how bad the night…a Texaco Dealer is ready to supply you with either of those 2 famous Texaco gasolines. He will clean the rain blurred windshield, offer you the shelter and convenience of his registered rest room, send you safely on your way”

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Greetings From the Nevada Test Site- Wish You Were Here!

Vacationing was a real blast in the Atomic Age!

For a merry-go-round of real nuclear family fun, no trip out west was truly complete without a visit to the Nevada Test Site for a bird’s-eye view of a genuine nuclear blast…the greatest show on earth!

In the 1950’s the Atomic Energy Commission decided that Utah and Nevada with its so-called “virtually uninhabited” territory, would be the perfect site for atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.

With a ringing endorsement from the AEC confirming that Uncle Sam had taken all necessary precautions to ensure our safety, the Nevada Test Site, only 65 miles from Las Vegas became quite the tourist attraction.

At the rate of one atmospheric bomb test a month, it attracted crowds as large as Frank Sinatra drew at the Copa Room at the Sands Hotel in Vegas.

Thousands packed their Ray Bans and Coppertone and headed west for a rip-roarin’, rip snortin’, good time.

Danger Ahead?

Nuclear Road Trip-(R) Nevada Test Site 1951

Most shrugged off the potential hazards of atmospheric testing especially the long-term danger.

In fact the danger lay in not doing the tests.

Most Americans agreed that the ultimate benefit of peace and security that only nuclear bombs would bring us was more than enough for the potential risk.

Of course there were outlandish allegations from some alarmists who attributed everything from rising cost of living to climate change, birth defects even throwing the very earth off its axis, to the tests.

The government debunked each of these fears.

It was, Uncle Sam said with a shrug, the same nervous Nellies who thought we should be concerned about the safety of DDT!

Our government insisted that the spate of nuclear atmospheric testings in Nevada were no more a danger than the new fangled TV transmissions racing through the sky.

Bombs Bursting in Air

Rockets Red Glare, Bombs Bursting in Air….

In 1954, before I was born, my parents contemplated a family vacation out west to Las Vegas.

What could be more American than catching Sammy Davis Jr at El Rancho Vegas while taking in the sights at the Nuclear Test Site.

Zion National park and Death Valley were so ho-hum!

In fact in April of 1954, Mom had clipped out and saved the Sunday New York Times Travel section with the feature about the carnival of fun in Nevada that could be had “watching the bomb go off.”

For the Kiddies

A new attraction at the Nevada Test Site that year was one made especially for the kiddies- the appearance of “The Atomic Cowboy.”

Brandishing a foot long cattle branding iron with AEC ( Atomic Energy Commission) initials on it, our all American cowboy as brave and true at heart as any Marlboro Man, would ride a herd of cattle and horses over ground zero after the bomb detonated to determine the effects of radiation.

Yee-Ha! Young cowpokes like my 2-year-old brother would sure get a charge out of that!

Wild, Wild West

L) Vintage Ford Car ad 1953 (R) Nevada Test Site 1951

Thousands were flocking to Nevada to witness these bombs bursting in air.

Capturing the rugged flavor of the old west where the sky is not cloudy all day- except of course when the bomb goes off- the desert landscape became littered with lawn chairs and luncheon meat. Insulated tartan plaid coolers dotted the desert as sight seekers in pedal pushers and sunny summer separates made themselves comfortable for the countdown.

Before the first light of dawn, dazzled tourists, their hearts thumping in their newly purchased wash n wear resort wear, sleepy kids in their pajamas and Roy Rogers hats, gathered with ex-GI’s in Bermuda shorts wearing WWII issued anti-glare Ray Bans.

Kodak’s at the ready, the thrill seeking tourists were told by their guide what to expect:

A Nuclear Humdinger of a Blast

“First of all one sees a very bright light followed by a shock wave and then you hear the sound of the blast. Then you look up and you see the fireball as it ascends up into the heavens,” he giddily enthused. “It contains all of the rich colors of the rainbow and then as it rises up into the atmosphere it assembles into the mushroom. It is,” he said with a sigh, “a wonderful sight to behold.”

As the pink clouds drifted across the flat mesas, the shock waves booming against the vacationers chests, a veil of radioactive particles gently floated over the test site. With the rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air, the heat from the blast stimulated a healthy radiant blush on the visitors, leaving them with an envied sunburned vacation glow.

And if you forgot your Brownie camera at home, not to worry- the adventure  would give you long-lasting memories. An experience that would stay with you for years.

Downwinders

And for those folks who couldn’t make any of the 126 tests detonated over 12 years from 1951 through 1962, no worries.
The wind would carry the mushroom cloud downwind, dispersing radioactive elements over the purple mountains majesty above the fruited plans, poisoning milk in New England, wheat in Iowa, and fish in the Great Lakes, making you feel just like you had actually been there.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Atomic Fairy Tale

(L) This 1955 ad by New Departures Ball Bearings looked into the future predicting a home laundry for the happy homemaker of 1965 that would wash, dry, iron and fold your laundry. We’re still holding our breath for that one.(R) Post war promises- Naturally there would always be a Ford in our future

Past Perfect- New Years Predictions

The New Year has always been the traditional time for crystal ball gazing offering tantalizing predictions for our imagined future.

Who can resist pondering what great scientific discoveries and technological wonders the future will hold.

For forward thinking post war Americans, peering into the future was a favorite pastime.

So it was with great interest that on my very first New Years day 1956 my mid-century mom gazed ahead 20 years for a glimpse of life in 1975.

My future; the one my parents would dream about for me.

New Years Day 1956

On the first day of January in 1956  New Yorker’s were hit with an icy, blustery snowstorm and it showed no signs of stopping.  Cars were at a standstill as Ford Fairlaines were replaced by flexible flyers. The eerie suburban silence was broken only by the occasional sound of kids building forts in the snow drifts.

As the snow continued to fall silently, the weathermen advised everyone to stay put in their igloos. Fortunately for us, we were as well stocked with frozen food as any Eskimo.

Snow bound in our suburban ranch house, Dad raised the temperature on the thermostat to a balmy 80 degrees and why not; oil was still the biggest bargain in the American budget.

By late afternoon, with the dishes washed, laundry folded, and my baby bottles sterilizing in the electric sterilizer patiently awaiting refill of baby formula, Mom could take  a rare moment off for herself.

My 3-year-old brother was busily engaged with the TV. Displaying  the skill of a safe cracker,  he delicately adjusted the large knobs on the mammoth mahogany encased set- one for the snowy picture,  another for the sound.

Mom could sit back, relax and give me my afternoon feeding while flipping through the latest issue of  Everywomans Magazine.

 All The News Thats Fit to Print

Dad  as usual had his nose buried in the newspaper. It was a slow news day. Other than the story of Sudan declaring its independence from Egypt and the UK, and Egypt’s Nasser  declaring his New years resolution  “to conquer Palestine,” the paper was filled with the usual new year predictions.

Dad read one optimistic article aloud:

“Man is being thrust into the future even as he lives in the present,” the article buoyantly noted. “Mankind has already had a mouth-watering taste of the meal that technology is cooking up. Such modern wizardry’s as plastics, miracle yarns, TV, air conditioning and frozen foods, once the dream children of imaginative inventors has become commonplace…”

High Hopes

Despite the cold weather and the Cold War, everyone was filled with high hopes  not only for the new year but for the future.

Never before had a country so heralded the future never before had a country so surpassed ones highest hopes.

Back to the Future 

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

As Mom read through the woman’s magazine, she skimmed over the feature  story on family weight planning  chock full of helpful hints on “how to slim husbands painlessly” and “add pounds to thin kiddies.”

Suddenly one article caught Moms eye. The colorful  feature promised to transport the reader 20 years ahead with a preview picture of life in America in 1975. Envisioning future technology, it ventured a guess at what we might find in a 1975 home.

It was hard to imagine life getting any better.

 Tomorrows Living Today

One end of the year ad in 1945 offered a glimpse into that promised post war world “Madam lets look to your future” announced the headline.
“What will it be like-your bright new world of tomorrow? New styles…new comforts new conveniences…new joy of living All kinds of marvelous things to brighten your days to lighten your burdens to make life more enjoyable than ever before. “

 In 1956, Mom felt we were already living tomorrow’s life today.

Only 10 years earlier many of the post war dreams envisioned by manufacturers busy with war production , had come true.

Now, it was a world of no waiting- no wondering- no defrosting- no fuss- no muss. Everything was long wearing, fast drying, king sized, the last word, the most convenient, working twice as fast.

(L) Vintage ad Monsanto Plastic through the House 1948 (R) Vintage Westinghouse ad

From morning to night the colors of the rainbow were all around me thanks to all the gay and festive plastic toys and household items that surrounded me. From my pink polyethylene teething ring and vinylite pacifier right down to my cheerful Playtex waterproof Happy Baby pants in five happy lollipop colors, these laboratory-born wonder materials would make life easier and more convenient.

Yes, mine would be a sugar-frosted world of colorfast, frost-free fun.

Predictions of Family Life 20 years from Now

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

Intrigued by what the crystal ballgazers would foresee for 1975, Mom read the futuristic article aloud to me in the hopes of offering a guided tour of what we might find 20 years from now  – my own world of tomorrow.

With a dramatic flourish they announced spectacular changes for the American family – “homes, food shopping and transportation of all kinds will undergo tremendous transformations. Some of the great advances to be expected in the realm of family life by 1975″ were lavishly illustrated .

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

“Tomorrow’s kitchen will be a triumph of controlled gadgetry,” Mom read with wonder and  the same enthusiasm as though reading me a bed time  fairy tale which in a sense it was.

The article explained:

“You’ll probably have a dishwasher and clothes washer in which ultra sonic rays do the cleaning without mechanical agtation.” Mom gushed with obvious delight, visualizing her future homemaker daughter in this most modern of homes. “When you telephone your image will be flashed on a screen.for the party at the other end, and vice  versa. TV sets will be wafer thin and hung lie pictures. You’ll wear a two-way wrist radio. And your electronically guided automobile will have an  automatic parking brain.”

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

Some of the great advances to be expected in the realm of family life by 1975 are shown in the pictures.

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

Profit with Progress

The upbeat article was based on a 28 minute film that was put out in 1955 entitled  “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

Interested readers were advised  they could get a more detailed insight into life in 1975 from the  film that was made  available for showing at local PTA meetings, Rotary and other clubs, and church groups.

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

“Does tomorrows world intrigue you?” the article asked the reader at the end.

“All these wonderful things will be possible” they assured us, “so long as we maintain our free market economy, our American way of life.”

Of course by 1975  the future had turned from promise to pessimism. A post Watergate America saddled by an oil embargo, inflation, recession and dangerous pollution,  had seen the future and nothing had turned out as advertised.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Back to the Future

Back to the Future PtII Retro Tech

Back to the Future PtIII Tech for the Suburbs

Right now sipping a rum and coke on glistening white sand basking in warm Caribbean sun sounds about right. Vintage illustration Coca Cola ad 1958 “Enjoying a Coke on Cuba’s famous Varadero Beach,” a 13 mile long peninsula with powder soft sands.

Bracing for yet another bone chilling winter storm, dreams of languishing on a white sandy beach soaking up the warm Caribbean sun are never far from my winter-weary mind.

And now a new dream vacation spot may open up… and its no dream.

Let’s raise a Cuba Libre in praise of normalizing relations between Cuba and the US.

Over half a century of waiting, my long-delayed Havana holiday might actually happen despite the all too predictable political backlash. The outrage by some Republicans about this development feels overblown and as wildly outdated as the vintage Chevy’s that fill Havanas streets. Having grown up during the cold war with Cuba as a sworn enemy it is quite clear that the tiger has been de-clawed.

Cuba  Where Yesterday Meets Tomorrow

Vintage tourism ad that touted “Havana Where Yesterday Meets Tomorrow” has never rung truer.

The frozen-in-time feeling in Cuba fits perfectly with childhood memories of stories shared by my parents of their mid-century Havana holidays.

Dinner time in the suburbs sometimes took on a fiesta feeling when my parents wanted to reminisce about their travels.

Over a festive dinner of arroz con pollo - a dish first enjoyed by Mom in Havana and now in the suburbs  made the authentic Ladies Home Journal way with a can of Hunt’s tomato sauce and EZ Minute Rice – Mom and Dad would regale us with their adventures in Cuba, casting a spell as intoxicating as the island itself.

The glitter and glamor of pre-revolution Cuba, that tropical Technicolor paradise of palm fronds and turquoise water, a sultry cocktail of casinos, corruption and the Caribbean Sea would fill their Kodacolor memories for decades …and fuel mine.

On the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959 the representatives of American company’s that operated the Havanas world-renowned Hotel National de Cuba departed. The glamorous hotel was the setting for the formation of the 26th July Movement revolutionary cell led by Castro. (L) Vintage travel ad Hotel Nacional de Cuba 1955 (R) Vintage Life Magazine cover Fidel Castro 1961

But New Years 1959 shattered any hopes of my own Cuban getaway. Along with ringing in the New Year with Guy Lombardo, Fidel Castro took over Cuba forever shuttering this Garden of Eden to American revelers.

Any dreams of rum-soaked nights dancing the rumba till dawn would have to marinate for well over 50 years.

For the  balance of my childhood, Cuba remained a mysterious and forbidden place; the romance and allure of pre-Castro Cuba now melded with a menacing bearded man, the specter of Communism looming so close to our borders  became a hot button issue in the cold war.

Honeymoon in Havana

My Havana honeymoon parents catch the rays on the Playa del Este a string of white beaches and brilliant aquamarine waters 12 miles west of Havana 1950

My parents had a romanticized sense of Cuba, and for good reason. It was after all where they had honeymooned in 1950.

As the years passed, the paradise would almost grow lusher, conjured by an imagination infused with nostalgia.

Did my PTA Mom and Republican Dad really linger an entire afternoon at La Floridita nursing daiquiris poured by highly skilled cantineros in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Ernest Hemingway at his favorite watering hole, which in their multiple tellings they had.

Hotel Nacional de Cuba

“In Havana at the famed Hotel Nacional de Cuba Roma Sherry precedes a happy dinner party.” Vintage illustration from 1947 ad for Roma Sherry

Like so many they were drawn to the fiesta that was Havana, the most exciting city in the Western hemisphere, the Caribbean playground to American socialites, politicians and movie stars.

Of course  the Honeymooners stayed at the world-renowned Hotel Nacional de Cuba , the iconic hotel filled with flowering gardens, sumptuous sun clubs and swimming pools where these newlyweds from NY could rendezvous with the smart Cosmopolitan set.

Tropical Adventure Awaits You in Sunny Havana

Gay Days in the Cuban Sun .The iconic hotel with its eclectic architectural style blending Art deco, Moorish with Spanish colonial was built in 1930 through an agreement with Cuba and US backed banks. Vintage ad Hotel de National Cuba 1947

This was the very same hotel that only 4 years earlier had turned my father away, during a winter school break.

It seems Lucky Luciano beat him to it, booking the entire hotel that Christmas week of 1946 for a big mafia summit at which the carving up of Havana among the crime families was on the agenda.

Undeterred, Dad found refuge in a little hotel on Obispo Street The Ambos Mundos Hotel, a place that Hemingway himself had stayed in during the 1930s

For a war-weary soldier 6 months out of the service and a few months into law school, Cuba with its tropical beauty and tropical beauties beckoned him.

It was a post war paradise

The streets of Old Havana, pulsating with African and Caribbean rhythms, were lined with architectural marvels of Spanish colonial architecture evoking tales of Cuba’s colonial past

A tourism magazine had described Havana as, “a mistress of pleasure, the lush and opulent goddess of delights.” It didn’t disappoint.

Havana was a paradise living up to its reputation as a tropical playground, a blend of glittering nightclubs, outrageous cabarets, all night bars with exotic drinks and backstreet brothels.

This young man from Astoria Queens was livin’ la vida loca!

Mama Loves to Mambo But Papa Likes to Cha Cha Cha

But the best stories were about the mythic Tropicana nightclub, the brightest jewel in Cuban nightlife.

“Havana’s glamorous Tropicana,” Dad never failed to point out between bites of Mom’s take-a-can-and-take it-easy arroz con pollo, “bore no resemblance to the one portrayed on TV!”

As much as Mom loved Lucy she would always smirk at the fictional Tropicana Club run by Lucy’s bandleader husband Ricky Ricardo ( famously played by Cuban Desi Arnez) a sanitized version of the sizzling club in Havana.

Billed as “a world of pleasure within a paradise of Magic,” the Tropicana, set in bucolic surroundings was a lush paradise of rumba and roulette, dazzling lights and equally dazzling “goddesses of the flesh” as the scantily clad showgirls were called, who pranced on catwalks set among tall royal palms rising above the tables through the roof.

Tropicana in the Sky

Taking off every Thursday from Miami International Airport , the flying party sets its happier patrons down in the balmy air of the land of daiquiris and sex at Havana’s Aeropuerto Jose Martin an hour later In between you are treated to excellent drinks, top-notch Latin Music and a floor show. Brainchild of Antonio Mintero, the promotional manager of Cubana Airlines, the flying saloon took 2 months to prepare before it was unveiled in 1956. Operated in a package deal with the fabulous Tropicana night club, revelers who want to try the thrills of a night spot in the air pay $68 for a ticket. Vintage ad 1957

Heralded as a “paradise under the stars” my parents took the nightclub’s slogan literally.

In 1958 they booked a flight on the famous Tropicana Special the first flight in the world with a live show aboard.

Offered by Cubana Airlines, the extravaganza was billed as The Greatest Show on Air!

“Treat yourself to an evening beyond your fanciest dreams Havanas Tropicana “The Monte Carlo of the Americas. Flying from Miami to Havana the 1 hour flight had a live show featuring Mambo, Rhumba, Cha Cha Cha and drinks on top of the clouds.”

Why wait until you got to sunny Havana to start the fiesta?

Whisking patrons 10,000 feet into the air, plying them with unlimited pink daiquiris and vibrating music  it wasn’t long before Conga lines of passengers and performers would be snaking down the aisles in the plane,  as the diamond chain of lights that were the Florida Keys move slowly behind.

Complete with miniature stage installed at the front of the cabin, decorated with a glowing arch like that at the Tropicana night club, musicians decked out in fiesta outfits played sizzling music on the piano trumpet, maracas and bongos.
Cha cha Cha’ing up and down the aisles were 2 saucy performers from the club, Gloria and Rolando encouraging passenger to sing along supplying them with Spanish lyrics printed on a card.

”As the torrid Cuban music poured over you would lose consciousness of the plane and its 4 huge engines and that 1 hour flight would fly by literally!” Dad would remember.

Of course lubricated by unlimited pink daiquiris didn’t hurt.

Breezing through the airport  in Havana  since Americans didn’t have to bother with customs thanks to a special arrangement through the airline and the Tropicana,  they were whisked to the real Tropicana Night Club, put up at the Hotel de Nacional for a few winks and flown back to Miami the next day with a complementary champagne toast.

Only 4/1/2 hours non stop from NY by air from Miami, American tourists flocked to Cuba in the winter. With the advent of cheap flights and hotels deals, the once exclusive hotspot became accessible to American masses.”Blend the glitter of Miami Beach with the romance and chance of the Riviera, spice of the West Indies and the rhythm of Havana.” vintage travel ads National Airlines

The best part was, this paradise was only 90 miles from Miami, my parents would remember wistfully.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

The proximity of Cuba being so close to Florida would take on a very different meaning especially in October 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis .

But while tourists eagerly spun the roulette wheel in sexy Havana, a revolution brewed in the less glamorous countryside.

This playground to American’s was abruptly shut down when Fidel Castro took over. The Tropicana that had opened to such fanfare on New Years Eve 1939, would close on another New Years Eve twenty years later, one which would ring the death knell of Cuba. Cuban revolution brought the curtain down on that era.

Soon the proximity of Cuba being so close to Florida would take on a very different meaning to me especially in October 1962 when Armageddon was narrowly avoided.

After that it was as if Moms famous arroz con pollo was seasoned with communism and its Spanish origins were emphasized as the chilly cold war came closer to home.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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The debate about Mad Men’s ending may continue for years, but no one can debate the fact that Coca Cola has succeeded in getting the world to buy a Coke.

With the final image of Don Draper meditating on a hillside in an Esalen-like retreat, Mad Men ended its amazing 7 year run with the playing of the 1971 “Hillside” Coca Cola commercial.

As the sun rises behind them, the harmonizing group of smiling, multicultural teenagers dripping with saccharine sincerity and inner peace, “hope to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony” by drinking a bottle of Coke.

The imaginary home filled with good vibrations that these peace-niks sang about, the apple tree-shaded one they wished to “buy the world and furnish with love,” would also (if Coke had their way) be furnished with an avocado green fridge filled with icy bottles of Coca Cola.

It’s the Real Thing

Unabashedly and unironically appropriating the hippie culture ethos, this chorus of pure capitalism selling “The Real Thing” represents the ultimate merchandising of the 1960’s.

Buy The World

Changes (L) Vintage Coke ad 1962

Gone were the wholesome all American teens  we came to expect from Coke fun-filled ads.

Now dressed in culturally appropriate color-blocked dashikis, peasant blouses, and silky kimonos, each wholesome multicultural teen holds the iconic green glass bottle of this magic brown elixir ( each branded in its native tongue) that they hope will help bring peace and harmony to the troubled world…. it is after all “What the world wants today!”

The wildly successful commercial (the ad campaign code name was aptly named “Buy The World”) was in perfect harmony with Coke’s marketing strategy and the way Coca Cola had been extending itself globally for decades.

What the World Wants Today

Vintage ad Coca Cola Admirality Isles, Bikini 1945

Whether hawking peace, love and human connection or freedom, democracy and camaraderie, that corporate colossus has accomplished the coca-colonization of the world which began long before the “Hillside” ad ran in the summer of 1971.

Coke had long advertised itself as offering a bit of commonality across the globe.

Nearly thirty years earlier during WWII Coke presented itself as an international sign of friendliness.

“Coke has become the high sign between kindly minded strangers the symbol of a friendly way of being,” they explained in one 1944 ad. “Have a Coke’ says he to a stranger and in one simple gesture he has made a friend. In 3 words he has said “You and I understand each other. ”

WWII Advertising: A Global Blitzkrieg

Vintage Coke ad 1942

With the precision used to plan a bombing mission in the South Pacific, Coca Cola calculated their advertising campaign during the War to make sure Coke was seen as vital to wartime morale and essential to Americans and their fighting men.

While the Coca Cola Company was busy boosting the morale of G.I. Joe, they were simultaneously laying the groundwork for becoming an international symbol of refreshment and solidarity.

The Global High Sign… I’d like to Buy the World a Coke

“How Americans Make Friends in Ireland” Vintage Coke ad 1944

Coke was our secret weapon for world peace

Rather than show war-weary soldiers enjoying their product, Coca Cola focused on Cokes ability to bring people and nations together. The ads carried the catchphrases “The global high sign” and introduced American readers to a few foreign phrases.

Set in exotic locals such as Russia, Newfoundland, and New Zealand the ads portrayed grinning GIs mixing it up and laughing over Cokes with British, Polish, Soviet and other Allies always with a caption along the lines “Have a Coke- a way of saying we’re with you.”

The ad men continually touted the drinks status as an American icon. “Yes around the globe, Coca Cola stands for the pause that refreshes- it has become a symbol of our way of living.”

But it wasn’t just G.I.’s for whom Coke was a symbol of the American way. It was a symbol for the native population as well.

The presence of Coke did more than lift the morale of the troops .

It gave the local people in the different countries their first taste of Coca Cola and paved the way for unprecedented worldwide growth after the war.

Have a Coke – Sealing Friendship in New Zealand

Vintage WWII ad Coke in New Zealand 1944

Kia Ora, says the New Zealander when he wants to give you his best wishes. It’s a down under way of telling you that you’re a pal and that your welfare is a matter of mutual interest. The American soldier says it another way.

Have a Coke, says he, and in three words he has made a friend.

It’s a custom that has followed the flag from the tropics to the polar regions. It’s a phrase that says Welcome, neighbor from Auckland to Albuquerque from New Zealand to New Mexico.

Round the globe, Coca Cola stands for the pause that refreshes – has become the high sign between friendly minded people.

Have a Coca Cola…How to Break the Ice in Iceland

Vintage ad Coke in Iceland 1943

Come be blessed and be happy says the hospitable Icelander when he meets a stranger. That’s a warm way of putting it but no more friendly than the way American soldiers say it. ‘Have a Coke,’ says the dough-boy and it works in Reykjavik as it does in Rochester. The pause that refreshes is the friendly way to say Hi Pal in any language.

Coca Cola has become the gracious ice breaker between kindly minded strangers.

Have a Coke –  How Friends Are Made in the RAF

Vintage Coke ad 1944

Have a Coke is a friendly greeting among RAF flyers back at early dawn from a night mission. It’s a salute among comrades in arms that seals the bonds of friendship in Plymouth England or Plymouth Mass. It’s an offer as welcome on an English airfield as it is in your own living room.

Our fighting men meet up with Coca Cola many places overseas where its bottled on the spot. Coca Cola has been a globe-trotter “since way back when.”

Making Pals in Panama

Vintage Coca Cola ad 1944 “Making Pals in Panama”

Being Friendly in Newfoundland

Vintage ad Coca Cola in Newfoundland 1944

There is an American way to make new friends in Newfoundland. It’s the cheery invitation Have a Coke an old U.S. custom that is reaching ‘round the world. It says let’s be friends, reminds Yanks of home.

In many lands around the globe, Coke has become the symbol of our friendly home ways.

Have a Coke – You’re My Kind

Vintage WWII ad 1944 Coca Cola

There’s a friendly phrase that speaks the allied language. It’s “Have a Coke.”

Friendliness enters the picture when ice-cold Coke appears. Over tinkling glasses of ice-cold Coke minds meet and hearts are closer together.

Coke has become an everyday high sign of friendliness among people of good will.

Liberators

G.I.’s liberating towns throughout Europe or working side by side with locals in the Philippines felt pride in sharing their favorite drink with their new-found friends.

Vintage Coke ad 1945

One of the interesting things that impresses people overseas about the American fighting man is his friendliness among his fellows. Everywhere they see Americans bringing with them their customs and home-ways-their own brand of open heartedness.

Have a Coke, foreigners hear the G.I.’s say when he wants to be friendly, and they begin to understand what America means. For in this simple gesture is some of the essence of Main Street and the family fireside.

Yes, the custom of the pause that refreshes with ice-cold Coca Cola helps show the world the friendliness of American Ways.

 

 Yank Friendliness Comes back to Leyte Phillipines

Vintage WWII ad Coke 1945 Philippines

Naturally Filipinos thrilled when their Yankee comrades-in-arms came back to the Philippines. Freedom came back with them. Fair play took the place of fear. But also they brought back the old sense of friendliness that America stands for. You find it quickly expressed in the simple phrase Have a Coke.

There’s no easier or warmer way to say Relax and be yourself. Everywhere the pause that refreshes with ice-cold Coca Cola has become a symbol of good will – an everyday example of how Yankee friendliness follows the flag around the globe

Winning Minds in Nazi Germany

Despite all American coca cola’s claim that it was the high sign between like-minded strangers the very symbol of patriotism, democracy and freedom, no mention was ever made to the fact that Coca Cola was doing business in Nazi Germany.

In the midst of their global advertising blitzkrieg, patriotic Coca Cola appeared at Hitler youth rallies as Coca Cola trucks accompanied the marchers hoping to capture the next generation.

“Mach Doch mal Pauss (Come on Take A Break) …Have a Coke – or winning minds in Nazi Germany” was one ad that we would never see.

Coca-Colonization Post War

Vintage ad Coca Cola in Alaska

WWII did more than perpetuate an image – it also led to Coke’s dominance abroad.

They created an enormous consumer base throughout the world that would not have been possible without General Eisenhower and the Coca Cola Company’s cooperation working towards bettering the morale of the American fighting man.

After gulping down more than a billion servings of Coke, 11 million veterans returned with a lifelong attachment to the soft drink. But it wasn’t only Americans who got hooked on the sweet elixir.

Many of the bottling plants established overseas during the war continued to operate as non military factories after the war. When the war ended, the coca cola company had 63 overseas bottling plants in operation in venues as far-flung as Egypt, Iceland, Iran, West Africa and New Guinea.

The idyllic post war world of Coca Cola fit in perfectly with the “Hilltop” commercial images “Grow apple trees and honeybees and snow white turtle doves.” Vintage Coca Cola ad 1946

During the war drinking Coke became  synonymous with fighting the enemies of freedom and democracy .

Now post war Americans would help underdeveloped countries improve their lives and know the real joy of good living by exporting American consumer goods helping them to better resist Communist pressures.

With our sparkling pepsodent smiles, Americans would meet our obligation to the free world-spreading democracy and offering a helping hand to people all around the globe-a coke in every Frigidaire and a Chevy in every garage. The path to the future would be bright and profitable

Globe Trotting With Coke

“In exotic Acapulco- Here too you find the pause that refreshes with ice cold coca cola. Because good taste itself is universal enjoyment of Coca Cola has become a welcomed social custom in over 100 countries. The best loved drink in all the world. Artist Robert Fawcett captures a moment of companionship in Mexico’s famous Acapulco. Vintage Coke ad 1957

Thanks to the dawning of the jet age, mid-century Americans were traveling out into the cold war world as never before and they knew coke would help them find new friends in this new global community linked by Coca Cola-“A recognized symbol recognition of friendliness and good taste.”

In 1956 Coke took their advertising business to McCann Erikson who produced these series of ads ads directed at this new international set, many illustrated by Jack Potter.

India …Coca Cola -Favorite of the World

“From a Maharajas Palace in far off India comes another interpretation from the brush of young Jack Potter.” Vintage Coke ad 1957. I was fortunate to have taken a class “Drawing and Thinking” with Jack Potter, the innovative illustrator who taught drawing and conceptual thinking at School of Visual Arts, after a highly successful career as an illustrator.

In ever widening circles. the uniquely pleasant taste of Coca Cola wins fresh appreciation and new friends.

Through more than 100 countries more than 58 million times a day someone enjoys the special flavor the welcome little lift of Coke. This remarkable endorsement has won for Coca Cola a gracious badge of good taste that’s all its own…recognized everywhere.

The best loved drink in the world.

Spring Time Paris…Goes Better With a Coke

“Enjoyment of the world famous pause is captured for you in Paris by artist Jack Potter.” Vintage Coke ad 1957

 Come to Paris in the spring…and here too Coca Cola waits for you….so good in taste in such good taste that the invitation Have a Coke has become a gracious custom in more than 100 countries of the world today.

Hawaii Holidays

Hawaii was still a territory when this 1957 ad ran. Illustrated by Jack Potter

 When you come to Hawaii…here too you’ll find the enjoyment of Coca cola is a welcomed social custom just as it is in over 100 different countries.

Venice…Ciao Coca Cola

Vintage Coke ad 1957 “Venice” Illustration by Jack Potter

In Venice too…sign of good taste…the art of living cheerfully speaks many lamnguages. And almost every language today knows the invitation Have a Coke.

Romance in Rio

 In Romantic Rio, too…sign of good taste…the taste of Coca Cola is so distinctive and so popular that the serving and enjoyment of Coke is a cheerful symbol of good taste in living everywhere.

Through more than 100 countries…More than 58 million times each day …the invitation Have a Coke has a welcoming meaning and acceptance all its own.

Canada and Coke

A famous Canadian resort inspires another interpretation from the talented brush of jack Potter

At Lake Louise, too…Sign of Good Taste…the instinct for pleasant living goes wherever pleasant people go…and take the custom of enjoying Coca Cola with it. So good in taste in such good taste …in more than 100 countries today, the invitation Have a Coke is the recognized signal for one of life’s unique pleasures

Better in Belgium

1958 vintage Coke ad Brussels World Fair

 Visit the Brussell’s Worlds Fair where you’ll find a ready welcome at coca cola pavilion

Why have people in more than 100 countries made coke cola the best loved sparkling drink on earth?

If Coca Colas mission was to offer Coke to “whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you may be, when you think of refreshment think of an ice cold Coca Cola”, then “mission accomplished.”

Postscript: How Blue Jeans Could Spread World Peace

Vintage Wrangler Jean ad 1970. Contest to go to Europe as a Young Ambassador to spread peace and harmony

Note:Coke wasn’t the only company to use an utilize a multicultural  approach in 1971. A year earlier all American Wrangler Jeans offered a trip to teens to be “Wrangler Young Ambassadors”. Any boy or girl between the ages of 16 and 22 could enter their contest to win a prize “traveling throughout Europe meeting people exchanging views,” in the hopes of spreading peace and harmony.

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Happy Motoring is not something Black drivers can take for granted.

Americans have long been urged to discover the vast greatness of America by car. What many discover especially when driving while black, is the rules of the road are not paved with equality.

See The USA in Your Chevrolet

“See The USA in Your Chevrolet.” Broadcast in living color on the Dinah Shore Show, Dinah’s classic tune had a different meaning for people of color.

The upbeat, all-American optimism expressed in the vintage jingle “See the USA in Your Chevrolet,” have some American’s singing a very different tune .

As the bitter debate about how our police forces treat non white citizens escalates, it has exposed a truth many minorities already know.

Driving in the USA whether in a Chevrolet or a Honda can be fraught with problems if you are African-American.

One need only look at the recent tragedy of Sandra Bland to see that the freedom of the open roads are a lot more constricting if you are Black.

It can drive you crazy

“America’s the Greatest land of All…”

“The wheel in my hands and the air rushing by and the cool crisp smell of a summer breeze…the miles sliding by and the tress flashing past and the sign posts flicker…the song of a motor and the feel of a car and her quiet speed…the joy of being alive.” Vintage Nash ad

Nothing is more quintessentially American than driving on the open road.

It is the tangible expression of America’s love of freedom and mobility with it’s offering of possibilities and adventures unfolding.

A Different Kind of Adventure

But for African-Americans the possibilities and adventures of the road can take a more ominous tone. Racial disparities in police stops are well documented.

Cops stop and search Blacks drivers at rates higher than whites.

Police are more likely to threaten or use force against Blacks at a traffic stop or elsewhere. Blacks are more likely to have their vehicle searched during traffic stops.

Mixed Signals

The freedom of the road that whites take for granted, is a privilege.

Even a minor traffic infraction can turn threatening  if you are Black.

Pulled over for changing lanes without using her turn signal, the police confrontation with Sandra Bland escalated into an overly aggressive encounter ending with her dead in a jail cell days later.

Clearly the rules of the road are different if you are driving while black.

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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How I Spent My Summer Vacation- Relaxing at home by the pool
Photo by Peter D Brown Photography

How I spent My Summer vacation

I will be on summer vacation the next few weeks.

Please enjoy some favorite posts of summers past. See you soon!

xo

Sally

Vintage Ad 1951 TWA

The summer vacation has long been an American tradition, but not all destinations are created equal.

While the 1% are off on their luxurious destination vacations, for many Americans who continue to see their income decline, the prospect of an end of summer vacation dims along with it.

The continuing economic slump has meant another summer of staycations for many middle class Americans.

So what’s a struggling family to do for fun this summer?

What if you could experience the thrilling wonders of Yosemite, the cool mountains of the Alps, the majesty of the Grand Canyon along with hundreds of other thrilling locations, teeming with adventure and beauty all from the comfort of your living room couch.

If you’re the happy owner of a genuine View-Master, the world’s your oyster… at least it could be if this was the 1950s. and ‘60s.

The View-Masters enthusiastic ads promised the  stay-at-home-vacationer a  travel experience like you never encountered.

It was down right thrilling!

 Hold me, Thrill me

 “You’ll thrill to marvelous views with View-Masters famous 3D view,” the ads  gushed.

 “You’ll know why folks everywhere name View-Master Tops in Travel. These Come-to-Life stereo pictures will thrill a family.”

“All the family will enjoy pictures of famous American scenes, exotic faraway lands, exciting children’s stories in the amazing depth of three dimensions. Viewmaster stereo color pictures are so real you’ll feel as if you are actually a part of the scene. Each low cost View Master reel contains 7  stereo Kodachrome scenes.”

The ads further promised to “take family and friends on entertaining educational stereoscopic tours of the world famous wonderland with true to life color 3 D view master pictures”. Whether to seashore, the mountains or a historical site  they would be your guide.

Yes, you’ll smile with satisfaction at the money you save, you’ll smile with pleasure as you relax in your Laz-E-Boy recliner as you travel the globe.

 A Rainy Day Suburban Savior

View-Master saved many a rainy day for me growing up in the 1960s.

Stuck inside my home in a non air-conditioned house during a stormy summer, could be a recipe for disaster for a 6-year-old.

While my older brother could be content to stay put with his transistor radio and lose himself  in the top 40 world of “Music radio …77 WABC…the place to be…hit time of bop shoo  op a bop bop”, I was  the more restless spirit. After amusing  myself with the hand- me- down Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs, remnants from my brothers  old Davy Crockett days,  I developed a case of wanderlust.

My brother may have been satisfied merely listening to Ricky Nelson croon on about being a travelin’ man…. I wanted to be one.

Wanderlust

Now with the help of my trusty View-Master  I could travel to the farthest corner of the earth or at least Carlsbad Caverns, Muir Woods, or the Hoover Dam.

If I never found out “who put the bomp in the bomp bah bomp bah bomp? Who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong? “it was fine by me.

Seeing the world in vivid  colorful 3D was almost like being there.

Holding the black speckled Bakelite View-Master, I’d carefully insert the circular cardboard discs with the individual tiny picture windows  into the top of the viewer,  waiting to heart the click letting me know it was in its correct position.

I was ready to be transported.

The View-Master dangled the promise to take me on thrilling  3D adventure and it was true to its word. Whether down old Mexico way, or walking the sands of Waikiki,  I would make a lot of stops all over the world.

“You’re in the threshold of glorious new vacation thrill when you enter the world of the View-Master—- no passport required.”

You’ll never even miss that costly destination vacation.

 Copyright (©) 20015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved -Excerpt From Defrosting The Cold War:Fallout From My Nuclear Family

Under the Tuscan Sun

Greeting to all my readers.  I will be returning to Envisioning the American Dream after Labor Day with all new posts.

Until then please enjoy my classic posts – like vintage wine, they get better with age!

Grazie!

Vintage ad 1944 Italian Swiss Colony Wine

Now and Then. Cuba prepares for historic visit to Cuba 2016  Photo: LA Times (R) Life Magazine -The Cuban Missile Crisis Nov 2, 1962 U.S. prepares f0r possible historic invasion of Cuba.

The deep freeze between Cuba and the U.S is thawing.

It’s hard to overrate the significance of President Obama’s historic trip to Cuba because as recently as 18 months ago the very idea of a sitting U.S. president stepping foot on Cuban soil would have been unthinkable…as unlikely and improbable a prospect as the idea of Donald Trump being a presidential nominee.

Now Obama is making history by holding talks with President Raul Castro opening a new chapter in the affairs of our two  nations.

Let’s raise a Cuba Libre in praise of normalizing relations between Cuba and the US, and revisit a post from the vault.

Havana Holidays

Right now sipping a rum and coke on glistening white sand basking in warm Caribbean sun sounds about right. Vintage illustration Coca Cola ad 1958 “Enjoying a Coke on Cuba’s famous Varadero Beach,” a 13 mile long peninsula with powder soft sands.

Bracing for one last  chilling winter storm, dreams of languishing on a white sandy beach soaking up the warm Caribbean sun are never far from my winter-weary mind.

And now a new dream vacation spot may open up… and it’s no dream.

Over half a century of waiting, my long-delayed Havana holiday might actually happen despite the all too predictable political backlash. The outrage by some Republicans about this development feels overblown and as wildly outdated as the vintage Chevy’s that fill Havanas streets. Having grown up during the cold war with Cuba as a sworn enemy it is quite clear that the tiger has been de-clawed.

Cuba  Where Yesterday Meets Tomorrow

Vintage tourism ad that touted “Havana Where Yesterday Meets Tomorrow” has never rung truer.

The frozen-in-time feeling in Cuba fits perfectly with childhood memories of stories shared by my parents of their mid-century Havana holidays.

Dinner time in the suburbs sometimes took on a fiesta feeling when my parents wanted to reminisce about their travels.

Over a festive dinner of arroz con pollo – a dish first enjoyed by Mom in Havana and now in the suburbs  made the authentic Ladies Home Journal way with a can of Hunt’s tomato sauce and EZ Minute Rice – Mom and Dad would regale us with their adventures in Cuba, casting a spell as intoxicating as the island itself.

The glitter and glamor of pre-revolution Cuba, that tropical Technicolor paradise of palm fronds and turquoise water, a sultry cocktail of casinos, corruption and the Caribbean Sea would fill their Kodacolor memories for decades …and fuel mine.

On the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959 the representatives of American company’s that operated the Havanas world-renowned Hotel National de Cuba departed. The glamorous hotel was the setting for the formation of the 26th July Movement revolutionary cell led by Castro. (L) Vintage travel ad Hotel Nacional de Cuba 1955 (R) Vintage Life Magazine cover Fidel Castro 1961

But New Years 1959 shattered any hopes of my own Cuban getaway. Along with ringing in the New Year with Guy Lombardo, Fidel Castro took over Cuba forever shuttering this Garden of Eden to American revelers.

Any dreams of rum-soaked nights dancing the rumba till dawn would have to marinate for well over 50 years.

For the  balance of my childhood, Cuba remained a mysterious and forbidden place; the romance and allure of pre-Castro Cuba now melded with a menacing bearded man, the specter of Communism looming so close to our borders  became a hot button issue in the cold war.

Honeymoon in Havana

My Havana honeymoon parents catch the rays on the Playa del Este a string of white beaches and brilliant aquamarine waters 12 miles west of Havana 1950

My parents had a romanticized sense of Cuba, and for good reason. It was after all where they had honeymooned in 1950.

As the years passed, the paradise would almost grow lusher, conjured by an imagination infused with nostalgia.

Did my PTA Mom and Republican Dad really linger an entire afternoon at La Floridita nursing daiquiris poured by highly skilled cantineros in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Ernest Hemingway at his favorite watering hole, which in their multiple tellings they had.

Hotel Nacional de Cuba

“In Havana at the famed Hotel Nacional de Cuba Roma Sherry precedes a happy dinner party.” Vintage illustration from 1947 ad for Roma Sherry

Like so many they were drawn to the fiesta that was Havana, the most exciting city in the Western hemisphere, the Caribbean playground to American socialites, politicians and movie stars.

Of course  the Honeymooners stayed at the world-renowned Hotel Nacional de Cuba , the iconic hotel filled with flowering gardens, sumptuous sun clubs and swimming pools where these newlyweds from NY could rendezvous with the smart Cosmopolitan set.

Tropical Adventure Awaits You in Sunny Havana

Gay Days in the Cuban Sun .The iconic hotel with its eclectic architectural style blending Art deco, Moorish with Spanish colonial was built in 1930 through an agreement with Cuba and US backed banks. Vintage ad Hotel de National Cuba 1947

This was the very same hotel that only 4 years earlier had turned my father away, during a winter school break.

It seems Lucky Luciano beat him to it, booking the entire hotel that Christmas week of 1946 for a big mafia summit at which the carving up of Havana among the crime families was on the agenda.

Undeterred, Dad found refuge in a little hotel on Obispo Street The Ambos Mundos Hotel, a place that Hemingway himself had stayed in during the 1930s

For a war-weary soldier 6 months out of the service and a few months into law school, Cuba with its tropical beauty and tropical beauties beckoned him.

It was a post war paradise

The streets of Old Havana, pulsating with African and Caribbean rhythms, were lined with architectural marvels of Spanish colonial architecture evoking tales of Cuba’s colonial past

A tourism magazine had described Havana as, “a mistress of pleasure, the lush and opulent goddess of delights.” It didn’t disappoint.

Havana was a paradise living up to its reputation as a tropical playground, a blend of glittering nightclubs, outrageous cabarets, all night bars with exotic drinks and backstreet brothels.

This young man from Astoria Queens was livin’ la vida loca!

Mama Loves to Mambo But Papa Likes to Cha Cha Cha

But the best stories were about the mythic Tropicana nightclub, the brightest jewel in Cuban nightlife.

“Havana’s glamorous Tropicana,” Dad never failed to point out between bites of Mom’s take-a-can-and-take it-easy arroz con pollo, “bore no resemblance to the one portrayed on TV!”

As much as Mom loved Lucy she would always smirk at the fictional Tropicana Club run by Lucy’s bandleader husband Ricky Ricardo ( famously played by Cuban Desi Arnez) a sanitized version of the sizzling club in Havana.

Billed as “a world of pleasure within a paradise of Magic,” the Tropicana, set in bucolic surroundings was a lush paradise of rumba and roulette, dazzling lights and equally dazzling “goddesses of the flesh” as the scantily clad showgirls were called, who pranced on catwalks set among tall royal palms rising above the tables through the roof.

Tropicana in the Sky

Taking off every Thursday from Miami International Airport , the flying party sets its happier patrons down in the balmy air of the land of daiquiris and sex at Havana’s Aeropuerto Jose Martin an hour later In between you are treated to excellent drinks, top-notch Latin Music and a floor show. Brainchild of Antonio Mintero, the promotional manager of Cubana Airlines, the flying saloon took 2 months to prepare before it was unveiled in 1956. Operated in a package deal with the fabulous Tropicana night club, revelers who want to try the thrills of a night spot in the air pay $68 for a ticket. Vintage ad 1957

Heralded as a “paradise under the stars” my parents took the nightclub’s slogan literally.

In 1958 they booked a flight on the famous Tropicana Special the first flight in the world with a live show aboard.

Offered by Cubana Airlines, the extravaganza was billed as The Greatest Show on Air!

“Treat yourself to an evening beyond your fanciest dreams Havanas Tropicana “The Monte Carlo of the Americas. Flying from Miami to Havana the 1 hour flight had a live show featuring Mambo, Rhumba, Cha Cha Cha and drinks on top of the clouds.”

Why wait until you got to sunny Havana to start the fiesta?

Whisking patrons 10,000 feet into the air, plying them with unlimited pink daiquiris and vibrating music  it wasn’t long before Conga lines of passengers and performers would be snaking down the aisles in the plane,  as the diamond chain of lights that were the Florida Keys move slowly behind.

Complete with miniature stage installed at the front of the cabin, decorated with a glowing arch like that at the Tropicana night club, musicians decked out in fiesta outfits played sizzling music on the piano trumpet, maracas and bongos.
Cha cha Cha’ing up and down the aisles were 2 saucy performers from the club, Gloria and Rolando encouraging passenger to sing along supplying them with Spanish lyrics printed on a card.

”As the torrid Cuban music poured over you would lose consciousness of the plane and its 4 huge engines and that 1 hour flight would fly by literally!” Dad would remember.

Of course lubricated by unlimited pink daiquiris didn’t hurt.

Breezing through the airport  in Havana  since Americans didn’t have to bother with customs thanks to a special arrangement through the airline and the Tropicana,  they were whisked to the real Tropicana Night Club, put up at the Hotel de Nacional for a few winks and flown back to Miami the next day with a complementary champagne toast.

Only 4/1/2 hours non stop from NY by air from Miami, American tourists flocked to Cuba in the winter. With the advent of cheap flights and hotels deals, the once exclusive hotspot became accessible to American masses.”Blend the glitter of Miami Beach with the romance and chance of the Riviera, spice of the West Indies and the rhythm of Havana.” vintage travel ads National Airlines

The best part was, this paradise was only 90 miles from Miami, my parents would remember wistfully.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

The proximity of Cuba being so close to Florida would take on a very different meaning especially in October 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis .

But while tourists eagerly spun the roulette wheel in sexy Havana, a revolution brewed in the less glamorous countryside.

This playground to American’s was abruptly shut down when Fidel Castro took over. The Tropicana that had opened to such fanfare on New Years Eve 1939, would close on another New Years Eve twenty years later, one which would ring the death knell of Cuba. Cuban revolution brought the curtain down on that era.

Soon the proximity of Cuba being so close to Florida would take on a very different meaning to me especially in October 1962 when Armageddon was narrowly avoided.

After that it was as if Moms famous arroz con pollo was seasoned with communism and its Spanish origins were emphasized as the chilly cold war came closer to home.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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In 1958 Belgium welcomed some 50 nations to the first Worlds Fair since the end of Word War II with a message of world peace. Vintage Coca Cola Ad 1958 – Coke goes to the Brussels Worlds Fair.

Once upon a time the world gathered in lovely Brussels to celebrate peace, now the world unites again, this time  in sorrow and support of the senseless terrorist attacks in Belgium.

In the spring and summer of  1958  Belgium welcomed some 50 nations to the first Worlds Fair since the end of Word War II.  The Fair was a colorful event spreading a message  full of boundless optimism, as bubbly as as a bottle of Coke,  reflecting a new society characterized by confidence in it future.

The was to be the biggest Fair since the the N.Y. Worlds Fair of 1939 that celebrated the World of Tomorrow. But that world of tomorrow proved ominous – one filled with horror,war and  nuclear destruction.

Brussels Worlds Fair 1958 Poster

Thirteen  years after those two Atomic blasts ended the  war, the Brussels Expo would celebrate the rejuvenation of civilization from the destruction of war through the use of technology.

Brussels Worlds Fair Poster 1958 by De Roeck

Atomium

Brussels Worlds Fair 1958 Atomium (source flickr Mike Cattell)

This first Worlds Fair of the Atomic Age, its lasting symbol would be the Atomium an enormous futuristic structure built to resemble an iron atom. This “a gigantic juggling act of silver spheres” arranged into a towering projection of an iron molecule, beckoned more than 40 million people to the Brussels Worlds Fair.

Visit Belgium Worlds Fair Sabena Airlines ad 1958

The majestic Atomium radiated the avowed theme of the fair “A New Humanism” dedicated to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to building better international relations.

That Fair that opened with such confidence in Brussels that  April with a call for world peace and social progress, seems sadly poignant today;  that optimism now shrouded in terror.

Dixie is really dishing out that famous southern hospitality for the LGBT community!

Anyone planning that gay, carefree vacation down south might want to think again.

As the controversial cluster of anti LGBT laws cut a swath through the south spreading faster than Sherman’s march to Atlanta, the results are equally disastrous causing  many to reconsider their springtime in Dixie travel plans.

Hospitality is Quickly Recognized

Hospitality Month was a regular feature of advertising and marketing efforts. A corner stone of the May Mississippi observance is the annual Miss Hospitality contest. “Its all waiting for you in the warn sunshine of the Hospitality State, the southern belle coos in an ad.”Let yourself go. Come to Mississippi the place to be.” Except of course if you’re gay

Sure,  May is Hospitality Month in Mississippi and “No state says welcome like Mississippi.”

That southern charm, bucolic land of magnolia blossoms, antebellum mansions, and an almost religious reverence to the past is perfectly expressed in that welcome wagon legislation known as the Religious Freedom bill. Yes traditional southern hospitality warms every straight visitors heart, a place where time has stood still…literally.

I Wish I Were in Dixie

Since 1949, Miss Hospitality dressed in a formal gown with a tiara and a Miss Hospitality sash, has been beckoning tourists  and industry to come on down to Mississippi.

The southern myth of gracious Old Southern hospitality was been perpetuated to lure visitors and industrial expansion to Mississippi at a time when Southern reality was not nearly as pleasant as the southern fantasy. Vintage illustration 1949 Budweiser Beer ad

In 1949 then Governor Fielding Wright in his efforts to modernize Mississippi and bring tourism money while building civic pride, proudly proclaimed that May would forever be known as “Hospitality Month.”

Tell that to those folks living under Jim Crow.

Mississippi Is More Than Meets The Eye

“Mississippi,” one ad claimed  is  “more than meets the eye.”

“Pleasant scenery, Mississippi has it and more; interesting battlefields, lovely antebellum homes open year round. You can see it and more but you just can’t visualize the warm friendly welcome awaiting.” That’s because if you’re LGBT it isn’t there.

Just remember,  if you’re gay, you’re as welcome as an 1950’s African American in a whites only drinking fountain.

North Carolina

Another fine state in your gay, carefree, discover America journey is North Carolina. Trans Travelers tip-  just make sure you make a rest stop before entering the state of North Carolina.

One travel ad beckons – “Begin your North Carolina coastal vacation in in the Virginia Dare Country – where America began.” Just don’t dare to use the wrong bathroom.

“Sir Walter Raleigh pioneers braved through here, the lost colony is recreated  for you – experience the  danger courage and adventure,” which just about sums up you’re your experience in trying to find the correct rest room.

“Then in easy trips enjoy the countless contrasting pleasures of North Carolina, thrill to coastal fishing, relax on sunny beaches, visit  lazy River plantations where lingers the spirit of other centuries”… not unlike the recent  anti-LGBT laws.

North Carolina’s new anti LGBT bathroom laws require transgender individuals to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender at birth. Vintage ad Texaco Clean rest rooms

Pack lightly but be sure to pack your birth certificate when traveling to the state whose motto is To Be, Rather Than Seem, since transgender men and women can only use bathrooms that correspond with their gender at birth.

“You’ll forget to hurry when in North Carolina.” ( unless you used the wrong rest room).

For another fun-filled state…things are happening in Tennessee.

“On a Tennessee vacation the days – glorious days slip by all too fast,” the travel ads tell us. “You’ll wish that time could stand still so that you could enjoy it on and on. You haven’t seen America till you’ve seen Tennessee,” yet one more hate filled state

“Get away from it all, plan to pack up and head  for Tennessee store away those workaday blues learn how wonderful life can be in Tennessee Worries vanish as you settle back and r-e-l-a-x.”

“Tennessee’s famous natural beauty will sooth those tense nerves.”

In fact it’s your only option of working away your worries  since there’s no hope of getting any mental health counseling if you are tense and trans in Tennessee. ( The house  passed legislation allowing mental health counselors to refuse service to LGBT patients on religious grounds.)

Your Key To Summer Hospitality

With anti-LGBT laws successfully passing and advancing across the south,  South Carolina wants to join on the hate bandwagon hoping  to pass a bill discriminating against trans people bathroom use.

“This is my home state, Miss Universe 1955 proudly states in this ad for South Carolina,  “and I’m proud to be able to invite you personally to see South Carolina where the Old South lends romance and enchantment to the gaiety of the new.

But just not too gay.

The key to summer hospitality….stay away from the south. Pledge to not spend your tourist dollars in North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee or any state that promotes prejudice and hate.

Postscript

The North Carolina governor responding to business pulling out and boycotting his state issues an executive order responding to the backlash against the anti  LGBT law HB2, but falls woefully short of a repeal.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Start your Rio holiday in style. Vintage Pan American Airways ad 1954

Tourists once flocked to Rio for its tropical thrills.

With its pulsing musical background of samba and mambo, travel brochures boasted that because of “Rio’s modern accommodations and ideal location being in the path of cooling trade winds, Rio de Janeiro  has an enviable health record.”

A tropical adventure awaited a lucky tourist.

Today, adventures are more likely to involve muggings and dangerous mosquito bites.

Rio de Janeiro has olympic sized problems. Brazil is plagued by crime, water pollution, a financial crisis, body parts washing ashore and a major health threat from mosquito borne Zika virus.

Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro. Vintage ad Pan American Airways 1951

But there was a time when the very name Rio de Janeiro would weave a spell of exotic excitement, romance and adventure. Called the Paris of South America  “this is the most exciting city in the world,” vintage travel ads proclaimed, “and that its pleasure will offer fulfillment to the dreams of the most extravagantly expectant visitor.”

Getting there was half the fun, especially if you flew  Pan American’s El Presidente.

Flying down to Rio in 1952, N.Y. suburbanites Dorothy  and Jim MacArthur felt like royalty…if not like Mamie and Ike. They were flying in style on El Presidente the finest, fastest, and most luxurious way to travel to Rio.

Pan Am really rolled out the red carpet for tourists wanting to fly to exotic South America in the early 1950’s.

Imagine, step aboard at N.Y. and depart in Rio in a mere 20 2/3 hours.

Imagine being in this land of enchantment, the thrill of being in a fabulous foreign land , of  the soft tropic nights and sun drenched days  in less than 24 hours!

In 1952 it seemed unimaginable.

Why be old-fashioned and get there in 13 days by cruise ship?

Flying Down to Rio

Vintage ad for Pan American Airways “El Presidente” to South.

So in August when Dorothy and Jim began planning their winter vacation, the capital of  a friendly southern neighbor with its resort city offering a bonanza of relaxation, entertainment and interest beckoned. Since south of the equator the seasons are reversed, these winter weary New Yorker’s  were ready to laugh and loaf in the sunny summer sun of Rio’s famous Copacabana beach.

They  headed straight to their travel agent to plan their trip.

“It’s fun on the lower deck club lounge of El Presidente. Stroll down anytime to chat, enjoy refreshments. You have lots of room to move around on the big double decked “Strato Clippers.” Vintage ad Pan American Airways to South America 1952

Because the high-speed luxury flights of El Presidente provided the only double-decked airliner service to South America, Roland their travel agent enthusiastically explained its deluxe services.

At the time , Pan American offered the traveler your choice, direct from NY, of money-saving El Turista or the very finest – El Presidente. “But,” Roland smiled, “why be just a plain old Turista when you could fly like a Presidente!”

Jim knew this was no time to scrimp.

“And talk about the luxuries aboard,” the travel agent declared fairly swooning.

This was without question the Blue Ribbon service of Western Hemisphere.

Enjoy gourmet meals. Vintage ad Panagra and Pan American Airways to South America

“You enjoy magnificent meals – including a 7 course continental dinner, served with cocktails, champagne, vintage wines, and liquors liqueurs. Extra cabin attendants provide swift, impeccable service.”

“And in these new Clippers – the fastest in Pan Am’s world-wide fleet – you breathe sky pure air, changed driftlessly every 90 seconds,” he explained.

Vintage Pan American Airways ad 1952

And the best part was you arrive at your destination refreshed!

“On El President nobody sits up a night. Everybody sleeps, except the pilot,”  he joked.

Sleep peacefully in a Sleeperette on TWA

A passenger could have  your choice of Sleeperette service at no extra charge. The  Pan Americans exclusive Sleeperette  aboard El Presidente gave the traveler  a bed length, reclining, soft nylon upholstered seat  with double the usual leg room. Or you could have  a berth at slight additional cost. There were  15 upper berths at $10 and 2 lower berths at $20 which were big, wide and comfortable.

“And finally for m’ladies…Orchids and Lanvin’s Arpege perfume,” the travel agent explained with a grand flourish to Dorothy.

Arrived refreshed in Rio. Vintage Pan American Airways ad 1952

El Presidente leaves N.Y. Mondays Thursdays and Saturdays at 11:00AM. Your first stop is Port of Spain early in the same evening. 9:40 the next morning you step out fresh as a daisy at Rio de Janeiro.

This was the way to travel!

 © Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.